Los Angeles tops list for waterway trash prevention costs

The Board of Supervisors will vote next month to put a $55 per year tax before voters to pay for local and regional projects to help keep pollution out of our waterways, clean up stormwater and increase local sources of clean drinking water. On Thursday, December 6, 2012, the LA County Flood Control District gave a tour to show how stormwater pollution collects within local waterways and how agencies are trying solutions to improve water quality. The Tujunga Wash is protected by an automatic retractable screen, that prevents trash from entering the storm drain, at Vanowen Street and Fulton Ave. in Valley Glen, CA. (Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer)

California communities are spending $428 million a year to keep plastic and other trash off the streets and away from polluting waterways and beaches, an environmental group said in a new report.

For many, “soda bottles, food wrappers and cigarette butts are just forgotten bits of muck that hit the street and wash away, forgotten. That waste doesn’t just disappear though, and it is very expensive to clean up,” said the Natural Resources Defense Council in a brief on the litter problem.

The study, released on Aug. 28, was based on information supplied by 95 communities around the state documenting how much they spent on street sweeping, litter pickup, waterway and beach cleanup, storm drain cleaning and maintenance, installation of devices to trap trash that flows down storm drains along with runoff and public education programs about litter’s impact on waterways.

The communities ranged in size from around 700 residents to nearly 4 million and at various distances from rivers, streams, lakes and waterways. Together, they spent an estimated $428 million on litter management and debris reduction — or around $10.71 per resident, the study found.

Los Angeles topped the spending list with more than $36 million in annual costs, followed by San Diego with about $14 million and Long Beach at around $13 million. Others in the top 10 were San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, Hayward, Merced, Redondo Beach and South Gate.

“Trash that pollutes our streets, beaches and waterways costs local governments and California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars every year,” Leila Monroe, senior attorney in the council’s oceans program, said. “That’s money down the drain that could otherwise be invested in schools, firefighters, police or improving public parks and other open spaces.”

The actual expenditures for dealing with trash, the report concluded, are likely to be much higher than estimated, because the findings didn’t include the cost of routine waste management and recycling at the county and state levels.

In addition, it didn’t calculate losses to tourism caused by debris that can kill fish and other wildlife and damage habitat.

The report, produced for the council by Kier Associates, called for more measures to reduce trash, especially plastics, and notes that a number of counties and communities have banned single-use plastic bags and food containers. It also said communities should work with the state to limit litter discharges in waterways.

The council said California needs a program to share the growing cost of dealing with plastic trash among plastic producers, local governments and taxpayers.